History Main / VirtualGhost

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', [[PlayerCharacter V]] meets the holographic ghost of Johnny Silverhand, who was a central character in the [[TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2020 tabletop series]].

* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in ''Anime/DennouCoil'', where several virtual ghosts appear that are [[spoiler:fleeting remnants of consciousnesses of eyeglass-users who got ''too'' integrated into the network and died. They're barely sentient and appear as tormented, shadowy beings]].

->''"You could say I'm alive... in a way. Ultimately, I'm the afterimage of the mind that was Akihiko Kayaba. An echo."''

* Professor Honneycut from ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' had his body destroyed when he was struck by lightning. Incidentally he was helping his robot assistant Sal get untangled from some fallen wires and had his mind uploaded to Sal's body.[[spoiler:It is later revealed that he uploaded himself to the internet shortly before his heroic sacrifice and comes back later to further aid the turtles]].

* In the ''VideoGame/VirtuaFighter'' spin-off ''VideoGame/VirtuaQuest'', the cast of ''Virtua Fighter 4'' (save Dural) appear as ghost data called "Virtua Souls". When [[PlayerCharacter Sei]] encounters them, he engages in a one-on-one fight with them and, upon defeating them, is bestowed with knowledge of their fighting techniques. The evil organizatio Judgement 6 is looking for Virtua Souls, themselves, for use in a new weapon...

* Quite literally on ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}''. When Bender commits suicide in one episode his programming is uploaded into the wireless network shared by all AI. He acts like a "normal" ghost who can't be seen by anyone except the Robot Devil and can [[HauntedTechnology possess machines]]. It's seemingly not unusual for robot "ghosts" to be able to manifest in this manner; "The Honking" shows an incident in which robots are buried in improperly shielded coffins, allowing their programs to project holographic versions of themselves through a modem.

* Quite literally on ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}''. When Bender commits suicide in one episode his programming is uploaded into the wireless network shared by all AI, and he acts like a "normal" ghost who can't be seen by anyone except the Robot Devil and can possess machines.

-->--'''Akihiko Kayaba''', ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline''

* The living portraits in ''[[Literature/HarryPotter Harry Potter]]'' are a rare explicitly supernatural version of this.

* Quite literally on ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}''. When Bender commits suicide in one episode his programming is uploaded into the cloud and he acts like a "normal" ghost who can't be seen by anyone except the robot devil and can possess machines.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS10E13HaltAndCatchFire "Halt And Catch Fire" (S01, Ep13)]], a man who dies in a hit and run accident near an electrical line connected to a Wi-Fi antennae survives as a ghost who seeks revenge by traveling through Wi-Fi.

** The data ghost of River Song reappears in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor "The Name of the Doctor"]] to help guide Clara in helping The Doctor through his ordeal on Trenzalore. At first, she believes that only Clara can see her, but the Doctor later reveals that he has been able to see and hear her the whole time, giving her a last kiss and an emotional goodbye before leaping into his timestream to rescue Clara.

** The data ghost of River Song reappears in the episode 'The Name of The Doctor' to help guide Clara in helping The Doctor through his ordeal on Trenzalore. At first, she believes that only Clara can see her, but The Doctor later reveals that he has been able to see and hear her the whole time, giving her a last kiss and an emotional goodbye before leaping into his timestream to rescue Clara.

!!Examples

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/RedDwarf'' has Rimmer, and occasionally, other deceased crew members. They occasionally ''do'' examine it a bit more than most: in the novel ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' the hologram before Rimmer is assured by the ship's metaphysical psychiatrist that he's not really him, he just thinks he is. And in the "Back To Earth" revival, Rimmer is told there is no moral, ethical or legal problem with killing him, because the ''real'' Rimmer is already dead.
* ''Series/RoboCopTheSeries'' has Diana, a.k.a. the [=MetroNet NeuroBrain=]. Like Robo, a cyborg, but she has even less living tissue, and is permanently installed in a datacenter that runs all of Delta City. She was murdered and installed in the system by corrupt OCP scientists (she was a colleague) and thus helps Robo even the score against her employers.
* ''Series/SuperForce'' featured a low-resolution image of Patrick [=McNee=] as the digital recreation of a dead scientist.
* ''Series/VRTroopers'' had the same thing.
* ''Series/MaxHeadroom'' just barely counts -- he was intended to be Edison's Virtual Ghost, but Edison survived, and Max evolved into a very different person.
* Honorable mention: Al in ''Series/QuantumLeap'' -- he shows many of the same traits, though he's actually a living human whose holographic form is a sort of telepresence.

* Jor-El in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' is probably one of these, though admittedly, it is not quite explicit exactly ''what'' he is.
** [[spoiler: Tess Mercer]] essentially becomes this in the Season 11 comics.
* Near-miss: the absence of real-time superluminal communication in ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' (FasterThanLightTravel requires a living pilot) means that all messages must be delivered by courier. In at least one instance, particularly vital information is sent in the form of an AI recreation of the sender, so that his virtual ghost can carry on an interactive conversation.
** This was actually a {{Retcon}} to rationalize the use of real-time interstellar communication in several earlier episodes, which happened because the new producer of the show didn't look into the ground rules of the show's universe.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Inheritance", Data converses with a holographic AI of his creator, Noonien Soong.
** Not to mention the various EMH/LMH variants seen were based on the personalities and appearances of either Dr. Zimmerman (their creator) or a famous Starfleet doctor.
** In a ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode, Reg Barclay sends a hologram of himself to the ''Voyager'' in order to interact with the crew. Unlike the shy Reg, the hologram is lively and friendly. However, as it turns out, the hologram was intercepted and corrupted by a group of Ferengi who wish to get their hands of the ''Voyager'' even if it means the deaths of the crew.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The two-parter "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" features "data ghosts", neural patterns that are left over in the interfaces of the archaeologists' suits after the archaeologist dies. The ghost is an echo of the person's personality, unable to interact or learn and slowly "winding down" to the point where it can only drone mindlessly. In "Forest of the Dead", [[spoiler: it turns out one of the dead archaeologists was able to transfer their full personality into the library's [=WiFi=] system, and by the end, the Doctor's managed to transfer the personalities of everyone who died into the library's computer]]. The upshot being that, technically [[spoiler: EverybodyLives]].
** The data ghost of River Song reappears in the episode 'The Name of The Doctor' to help guide Clara in helping The Doctor through his ordeal on Trenzalore. At first, she believes that only Clara can see her, but The Doctor later reveals that he has been able to see and hear her the whole time, giving her a last kiss and an emotional goodbye before leaping into his Timestream to rescue Clara.
* ''Series/{{Caprica}}'':
** There's a complex case in the form of Zoe Graystone's Avatar. She's a recreation of her creator, based on ''publicly available records of her life'', and yet, even her father acknowledges that the difference between the original (and now deceased) Zoe and the avatar version is inconsequential. Unlike most examples of this trope, the avatar version of Zoe existed alongside her creator, and the two had been able to converse. The questions her existence raises for the nature of what it means to be a person is at the philosophical heart of the series. [[spoiler:The ending montage in the final episode shows that Zoe's parents have accepted her as their new daughter and created a physical though non-organic body for her.]]
** Tamara is a more typical example, created after her original's death and not even realizing she was dead [[spoiler: until recently]].

* In the ''Series/Supergirl2015'', the Kryptonian archives use the image of Kara's mother, Alura, to interact with her. Sometimes, though, the simulation gets a bit carried away and acts like Kara's actual mother.

* The AI versions of Harold Hoerwick in .hack//Sign. They're nowhere near as advanced as most other versions on this page (and rightly so; this series is set 20MinutesIntoTheFuture) and tend to only repeat a few cryptic lines at a time, but the information inevitably proves crucial. He also appears in the four [=PS2=] games set slightly afterward.

* Jor-El in recent Franchise/{{Superman}} titles, riffing off TheMovie and ''Series/{{Smallville}}''.

* The first ''Literature/LazarusChurchyard'' story features "Virtual Heaven", a cyberspace environment full of the digitally preserved personalities of deceased programmers.

* Shade of Garth Nix's ''Literature/ShadesChildren''. Also, the Leamington personality from the University, though it was much less refined.
* Used in many of Peter F. Hamilton's novels. There was usually a HiveMind made up of these ghosts, and this method is considered a [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence viable alternative to death]].

* The fairly transhumanist novel ''Newton's Wake'' has virtual ghosts as self-aware beings who happen to be susceptible to the same kinds of access restrictions and file system commands as regular bunches of data. Some characters treat owning and utilizing virtual ghosts as slavery. Others test the defenses of computer systems by throwing copies of ghosts at them.

* In ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' Calvin Sylveste exists after death in the form of an extremely advanced beta-level AI created through an extensive scanning regime while Calvin was still alive; he is far more intelligent than similar Beta-level AI that are driven by simple formulas and memory banks, and is only marginally less complex than an Alpha-level AI created through destructive BrainUploading. [[spoiler: The Sun Stealer is an hostile ''alien'' virtual ghost, and the Mademoiselle is an apparently human one that works to counter Sun Stealer.]]

* In Creator/IainMBanks's ''Literature/FeersumEndjinn'' people who die have their memories saved and are reincarnated in new bodies, however after a certain number of deaths they are reduced to virtual ghosts. After they die enough times in the virtual world they stop existing altogether.

* In ''Literature/AMemoryCalledEmpire'' people from the space station Lsel have a brain implant that compiles their memories into an "imago" that is eventually loaded into their successor's implants, advising them and gradually merging to form a combined personality with the host. Mahit doesn't get the chance to perform a proper integration with her predecessor Yskandr as they're forced to rush it, and he has a mental breakdown on seeing his corpse.

* ''Series/RoboCopTheSeries'' the TV series has Diana, a.k.a. the [=MetroNet NeuroBrain=]. Like Robo, a cyborg, but she has even less living tissue, and is permanently installed in a datacenter that runs all of Delta City. She was murdered and installed in the system by corrupt OCP scientists (she was a colleague) and thus helps Robo even the score against her employers.

* In the ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' episode "The Memory of War" the technomage who created the nano-virus that wiped out a planet's population a hundred years ago left behind an AI with his appearance and personality to control the virus.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' Ghosts in the Machine, remnants of flatlined hackers floating around in the Matrix, are widely considered an urban legend. However the 4th edition "Runner's Guide" has "Ghost" as a quality that AI characters can take. The earliest known one was Alice Haeffner, who died in the first Crash in 2029. Several more Ghosts were created during Crash 2.0 in 2064, including the datajacked dragon Eliohann.

* Jefferson Clay in the ''VideoGame/IndependenceWar'' series became one of these in his final battle. Created without consent, he is understandably upset about his situation and acts as the ship's resident DeadpanSnarker.
** He is the PlayerCharacter's mentor in the sequel.

* Ma3a in ''[[VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh Tron 2.0]]'' straddles the lines of this, BrainUploading, and InterfaceWithAFamiliarFace. [[spoiler: Dr. Lora Baines-Bradley was killed by being partially digitized with her laser. Whether by accident or design, the part of her left in cyberspace was compiled with the AI project she and Alan were working on, creating Ma3a.]]

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' [[PlayerCharacter V]] meets the holographic ghost of Johnny Silverhand, who was a central character in the [[TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2020 tabletop series]].

* In {{Videogame/SpaceStation13}} A ghost can become this through a positronic brain.

[[JustForFun/HowToKillACharacter Death]] is a real bummer. [[DeathIsCheap Fortunately, in the future, we'll find a way around it.]] Using [[AppliedPhlebotinum Science]][[TradeSnark ™]] we will be able to [[BrainUploading squirrel away the mind of a dead or dying person in a computer]], and digitally recreate them later as a ProjectedMan with {{hologram}}s.

** This ''[[WildMassGuessing may]]'' be the ultimate fate of the [[spoiler:Asgard]] as of season 10 of ''Series/StargateSG1''. [[spoiler:With their last attempt at curing their [[CloningBlues genetic disease]] ending in failure, they opt for mass suicide and the destruction of their society in order to stop other races from pillaging their ruins. But not before transferring all their knowledge and technology into a legacy device which was handed over to Stargate Command. This device also has holographic projections of the Asgard people, which can be accessed at will. Note, however, that said holograms are never shown to have personality, merely being a glorified user interface similar to the ''Film/IRobot'' example.]]

* In ''Series/KnightRider 2010'', the supercar's computer intelligence was actually a copy of the mind of his girlfriend, who'd been in {{Cyberspace}} at the time of her murder so that her mind was [[YouFailBiologyForever not actually in her body at the time]]. In addition to controlling the car, she could project a hologram of herself.

The SciFi version of the SpiritAdvisor.

A Virtual Ghost can end up practically reincarnated if made out of HardLight. SisterTrope to LivingMemory. See also HologramProjectionImperfection. Not to be confused with HauntedTechnology, where a ghost inhabits technology by supernatural means.

Compare with DigitizedHacker, which is a mind that has integrated with the internet. Compare and contrast with ArtificialAfterlife, which often involves a copy of a person living on after their death in an "afterlife" that people have created for themselves.

** This is what effectively happens to [[spoiler:Shepard in the Control Ending when his mind gets uploaded into the Reaper master consciousness.]]

[[JustForFun/HowToKillACharacter Death]] is a real bummer. [[DeathIsCheap Fortunately, in the future, we'll find a way around it.]] Using [[AppliedPhlebotinum Science]][[TradeSnark ™]], we will be able to [[BrainUploading squirrel away the mind of a dead or dying person in a computer]], and digitally recreate them later as a ProjectedMan with {{hologram}}s.